Frontmatter Reference

Introduction

Both .md (markdown) and .ree (template) files can include YAML frontmatter - a block of metadata at the top of the file, delimited by --- lines. Frontmatter is parsed by parse_frontmatter() in lib/static_site.ts using Bun's built-in YAML parser.

---
title: "My Document"
layout: "docs"
has_sidebar: true
---

Global Fields

These fields apply to both .md and .ree files:

Field	Type	Default	Description
`title`	string	-	Page title. Used in `<title>`, sidebar navigation, and as the heading if no `# Heading` exists in markdown content
`layout`	string	`"layout"`	Layout template name. The engine tries `{name}.layout.ree` first, then `{name}.ree`

Markdown-Only Fields

These fields are specific to .md files and are consumed at different stages of the SSG pipeline.

Sitemap & SEO

Field	Type	Default	Description
`sitemap`	boolean	`true`	Set to `false` to exclude this page from the generated `sitemap.xml`. Also implied by `noindex: true`
`noindex`	boolean	`false`	Set to `true` to exclude this page from the sitemap. Use alongside `<meta name="robots" content="noindex">` in the layout
`localize`	boolean	`true`	Set to `false` for pages whose content is identical in every language - the sitemap emits only the default-language URL, with no per-language entries or hreflang alternates
`lastmod`	date string	see below	Override the `lastmod` date in the sitemap. Format: `YYYY-MM-DD`. When not set, the sitemap falls back to `published_at`/`date`, then to the file's modification time

Field	Type	Default	Description
`has_sidebar`	boolean	`false`	Enable sidebar navigation for this section. Set on the section's `index.md` file. Also accepts `"true"` and `"yes"` (string values from YAML parsing). All `.md` files in the same folder become sidebar entries
`skip-navigation`	boolean	`false`	Exclude this page from the sidebar navigation. Useful for utility pages that shouldn't appear in the sidebar menu

RSS Feed

Field	Type	Default	Description
`rss`	boolean	`true`	Set to `false` to exclude this post from the RSS/JSON feed
`published_at`	date string	file mtime	Publication date for RSS. Format: `YYYY-MM-DD` or full ISO datetime
`date`	date string	file mtime	Alias for `published_at`
`description`	text	first paragraph	Post description/summary for the RSS feed. Falls back to the first paragraph of content if not set
`summary`	text	first paragraph	Alias for `description`
`abstract`	text	first paragraph	Alias for `description` (academic layout)
`author`	string or object	-	Author name or `{name, email}` object
`authors`	array	-	Array of author objects `[{name, email, url}]`. First entry is used for RSS `<author>`, all entries appear in JSON Feed

Rendering

Field	Type	Default	Description
`site_name`	string	`"Static Site"`	Override the site name for this specific page

Frontmatter Resolution

Language-Variant Frontmatter

For language-specific markdown files (file.en.md, file.sl.md), frontmatter from the resolved variant is used. When checking for sitemap inclusion, noindex: true or sitemap: false on any language variant excludes the canonical page from the sitemap entirely.

The resolution order:

{name}.{lang}.md - exact match for the active language
{name}.{default_language}.md - fallback to the default language
{name}.md - generic fallback

Frontmatter Merging

When the SSG script scans language variants, frontmatter values are merged:

Scalar values (strings, numbers, booleans) from the most specific variant win
sitemap: false and noindex: true on any variant cause exclusion
lastmod resolves to the explicit lastmod, then published_at/date, then the most recent mtime across all variants

Examples

Basic Page

---
title: "Installation Guide"
layout: "academic"
---

Blog Post with RSS Metadata

---
title: "Introducing ReeWeb 0.1"
date: 2026-05-12
author: "Matic Jurglic"
description: "The first public release of ReeWeb, a new static site generator."
tags:
    - release
    - announcement
---

Multi-Author Post

---
title: "Building with ReeWeb"
published_at: 2026-06-01
authors:
    - name: "Matic Jurglic"
      email: "matic@reepolee.com"
    - name: "Evan"
      url: "https://example.com"
---

Page Excluded from Everything

---
title: "Draft Notes"
sitemap: false
rss: false
skip-navigation: true
---

Section with Sidebar

On the section's index.md:

---
title: "Documentation"
has_sidebar: true
---

All *.md files in the same directory automatically become sidebar entries, ordered by filename.